In the technical state it is known the document of U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,772 which describes a system and a method for providing remote viewing of satellite transponder plots, and which is connected to a spectrum analyzer that generates the referred plots. Also, comprises control equipment and a server connected to the spectrum analyzer and to an antenna, so local storage of plots is made in the server and through a remote connection, it is possible to access the server and view the stored plots. This system does not allow to obtain the plots evolution in real time, since the plot is stored as a photograph, and it is sent to the remote computers. Also, this system does not allow to command the operation of the measurement system to obtain measurement results and plots from a cellular phone terminal, but it requires a remote computer.
In the technical state also it is possible to mention the U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,067 which describes a data acquisition system from a portable spectrum analyzer connected to a telecommunication system. Data captured by the analyzer is transmitted by a telecommunication system to a slave receiver module which is accessible through any way of communication, such as for example cellular telephony, so maintenance and parameter update tasks are performed. This system requires the development of a particular slave receiver module that although it may use cellular telephony networks to communicate with the telecommunication equipment connected to the measuring equipment, it does not allow to display measurement results and plots on a wireless handheld mobile terminal.
Also, the document Japan Patent JP 502224 has been located; it refers to a system for performing the alignment of a transportable ground station for satellite communications, intended for reducing the time required by the transportable station operator to perform one test but, like the previous systems, it does not allow to display real-time information data traces on wireless handheld mobile terminals.
Therefore, in the technical state it is not known any system that allows the measurement control and trace display from one or more concurrent wireless handheld mobile terminals in real-time.
In order to achieve the objectives previously mentioned, the invention has developed a system that allows monitoring of terrestrial and satellite signals from one or more wireless handheld mobile terminals in real time by means of a server.
The invention system, like the systems described in the technical state, comprises one or more signal capture element for satellite, terrestrial, cable headends, etc which are connected to the measuring equipment that obtains traces representing signal parameters, like a spectrum analyzer. This measuring equipment is connected to the server which commands the measuring equipment to get and process the data parameters and traces obtained by the measuring equipment.
The innovation of this invention is that the server comprises a new framework that allows the communication with one or more wireless handheld mobile terminals so the server commands the measurement instrument to obtain measurement results and traces ordered from the wireless handheld mobile terminals. Also, a wireless handheld mobile terminal with graphics display includes a new framework that allows commanding and controlling the measurement instrument through the server and, in order to achieve that functionality, it comprises:
a control module to command, from the wireless handheld mobile terminal, the measurement instrument in order to obtain measurement results and traces through the server and also to control the reception of measurement data and traces, obtained by the measurement instrument, at the wireless handheld mobile terminal.
a command editing and control module for the selective edition of commands and its transmission to the measurement instrument through the server.
a graphics module for displaying in real time on the wireless handheld mobile terminal graphics screen the measurements results and traces obtained.
The new configuration for the server is determined by incorporating:
a wireless communication control module for communicating with the wireless handheld mobile terminals and comprising a multitasking sub-module for providing concurrent access to multiple simultaneous users.
a storage module which includes a user identification and authentication sub-module to perform the access validation, once the communication has been established, allowing the access to the measurement instrumentation.
an instrumentation command control module for managing the commands sent by the wireless handheld mobile terminal to command the measurement instrumentation, allowing its control, and comprising a shared instrumentation coordination sub-module to share the measurement instrumentation transparently among multiple wireless handheld mobile terminal users in real-time.
A data base which stores that data that allows to remotely control the measurement instrumentation from the wireless handheld mobile terminals.
This configuration allows the representation in real time of trace information and measurement results obtained by the measurement instrumentation on the remote wireless handheld mobile terminal, which represents a significant advantage; and, in a way that the system can be connected to any kind and model of computer controllable measurement instrumentation.
Another advantage introduced by the invented system consists in providing simultaneous communication capabilities with the server to multiple wireless handheld mobile terminals; to achieve this function, the server wireless communication control module includes a multitasking control sub-module and the server instrumentation command control module, for controlling the commands sent by the wireless handheld mobile terminal, comprises a shared instrumentation coordination sub-module to share the measurement instrumentation transparently among multiple wireless handheld mobile terminal users in real-time.
Also, the server storage module includes a measurement system operation save and recall set-up sub-module which manages pre-defined measurement parameter value setups and the wireless handheld mobile terminal comprises a measurement set-up edit, save and recall module.
The communication between the wireless handheld mobile terminal and the server employs TCP/IP and HTTP protocols, very popular and well known in the data communications world.
One implementation of the invention is built on a cellular phone terminal with graphics display; besides the modules already mentioned, it comprises a dial-up connection module for establishing the call to communicate the cellular phone terminal with the server, and a math processor to format and display the raw measurement results and trace information received. Also, it is possible to have the cellular phone terminal integrated in a laptop or pocket computer and display measurement results and traces in real time on its screen.
The communication between the cellular phone terminal and the server can be made using the fixed telephone network by connecting the server to that telephone network and establishing the communication with the cellular terminal in a conventional way using the mentioned protocols.
In other implementation of the invention, the wireless handheld mobile terminal is a pocket computer with an integrated wireless local area network (LAN) transceiver, also known as Wi-Fi (IEEE-802.11 standard), as an example of implementation on a pocket computer (Pocket PC) or PDA (Personal Device Assistant) handheld computer.
The handheld or pocket computer used by the invention, in addition to the standard framework used, it exhibits a system initialization and management module, connected using the handheld computer provided means, to command the measurement instrumentation in order to take measurements and obtain traces, and to receive those measurements and traces obtained by the measurement instrumentation.
The measurement system set-up save and recall module in the handheld computer is connected to the handheld computer non-volatile memory. In this way, it is possible to save different measurement instrumentation set-ups (measurement configurations) and, afterwards, recall any pre-saved set-up and send it to the measurement system through the server to configure the measurement system with that selected operating set-up. The invention considers that the measurement system set-up save and recall module comprises a measurement trace limit mask sub-module to graphically indicate where and when the measurement results (traces) are above and/or below the defined upper and lower measurement limits to detect possible failures, events, etc. Also, the handheld computer non-volatile memory contains, by default, the instrumentation preset set-up.
Measurement mask limits define an upper and a lower limit, establishing a gap or margin; also, it is possible to define relative upper and lower limits taking any single point of the measured trace as a reference.
The graphics module, for displaying on the handheld computer screen the traces obtained from the measurement instrumentation, is connected to the handheld computer non-volatile memory to store different traces obtained by the measurement instrumentation and record the spectrum activity during a given time period; also, this graphics module comprises a processing sub-module to process and display in real-time several traces simultaneously, like the case of a cross-polarization isolation measurement graphics representation, for example, where two signals from two different polarizations are displayed simultaneously. Also, the graphics module comprises a sub-module to zoom-in the represented traces and other sub-module to display in real time the maximum hold and minimum hold traces during a given time period.
The command editing and control module in the handheld computer facilitates the selective edition of commands that are sent to the measurement instrument through the server. Also, it is possible to send a measurement instrumentation set-up to make one or several measurements, as it was described previously.
The command editing and control module in the handheld computer comprises
a frequency sub-module to set the frequency parameters at the measurement instrument (start, stop, center, span, offset)
a markers sub-module to position and display markers at the displayed trace(s) and its associated measurement readouts: frequency and amplitude.
a filters sub-module to select different video and resolution filter bandwidths at the measurement instrumentation, specify the trace average factor and the sweep time parameter.
an amplitude sub-module to set the amplitude parameters at the measurement instrument (reference level, scale, input attenuation)
a display selection sub-module to establish a selection of different traces to be displayed on the handheld computer screen.
a measurement sub-module to specify one or multiple measurements (signal center frequency, amplitude, bandwidth, power, C/N ratio, cross-pol isolation) on the displayed trace at the handheld computer screen.
a measurement parameter sub-module to specify or select the measurement parameter value to be used by processing algorithms applied to raw measurements readings in order to compute elaborated results of previously mentioned measurements.
The frequency sub-module includes a block for selection or value definition for each of the measurement instrumentation (signal or spectrum analyzer) following frequency parameters:
center frequency,
frequency span,
start frequency,
stop frequency and
center frequency offset.
The markers sub-module includes:
a block with marker search functions to position the markers at the maximum or minimum amplitude point in a given trace being displayed on the handheld computer screen.
a block to set the analyzer""s center frequency to the frequency value indicated by the marker readout.
a block to set the analyzer""s amplitude reference level to the amplitude value indicated by the marker readout.
a block to indicate the frequency and amplitude difference between two markers readouts (delta marker)
The amplitude sub-module includes a block for selection or value definition for each of the measurement instrumentation (signal or spectrum analyzer) following amplitude parameters:
reference level,
amplitude scale, and
input attenuation.
The filters sub-module includes a block for selection or value definition for each of the measurement instrumentation (signal or spectrum analyzer) following filtering parameters:
video filter bandwidth, and
resolution or IF filter bandwidth.
Also, it includes blocks for selection or value definition of the measurement instrumentation (signal or spectrum analyzer) frequency sweep time and trace averaging factor.
The measurement sub-module to specify one or multiple measurements (signal center frequency, amplitude, bandwidth, power, C/N ratio, cross-pol isolation) on the displayed trace at the handheld computer screen includes:
a block to selectively command the execution of each measurement in a single or continuous way.
The measurement parameter sub-module used to specify or select the measurement parameter values to be used by processing algorithms applied to raw measurements readings in order to compute elaborated results of previously mentioned measurements includes:
signal modulation format selection:analog or digital, used for computation of the power measurement,
reference frequency bandwidth for the normalization of the noise measurement result used in the calculation of the C/N ratio measurement,
signal center frequency offset to perform the noise measurement used in the calculation of the C/N ratio measurement,
amplitude offset in dB from maximum amplitude point of signal""s trace to perform the signal bandwidth measurement,
input switching position of the cross polarized signal to perform the cross-polarization isolation measurement.
The display selection sub-module used to establish a selection of different traces to be displayed on the handheld computer screen also includes:
a block for defining the storage place in the handheld computer memory for measurement traces,
a block for editing the measurement results with an external standard word processor,
a block for printing the measurement results and traces on a printer connected to the handheld computer.
Another innovation introduced by the invention consists in including a solid-state or electromechanical switching matrix (between multiple possible signal capture elements and the measurement instrumentation) and its control mechanisms, allowing the selection of a particular input signal for performing its measurements from the remote wireless handheld computer. In this way, the handheld computer remotely commands the input switching matrix to automate the cross-polarization isolation measurements by alternating, in an instrument sweep synchronized way, the input switching selection at the matrix between two orthogonal polarized input signals (i.e. vertical and horizontal polarized signals).
To better illustrate and explain this description, following a set of diagrams representing the invention is shown, as an integrating part of this document, intended for illustrative, but not limiting, purposes.